The following preview is courtesy of Notre Dame athletics:
WHO: #9/8 Notre Dame (23-9-0, 15-7-0-5-1-0 B1G) vs. #2/2 Michigan (25-7-1, 16-6-0-0-3-0 B1G)
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET // Saturday, Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. ET
WHERE: Compton Family Ice Arena
WATCH: Peacock
LISTEN: 94.3 FM | UND.com
NOTES (PDF)
SETTING THE STAGE
- No. 8/9 Notre Dame will close out the regular season at home this weekend against No. 2/2 Michigan on Feb. 25-26.
- With a single point in the series against the Wolverines, the Irish would lock up the third seed in the upcoming Big Ten tournament, while Michigan will be looking to clinch the regular-season championship.
- Notre Dame is coming off a road series sweep of Michigan State, taking game one 2-1 (Feb. 18) and game two 4-2 (Feb. 19).
- Graduate student goaltender Matthew Galajda stopped 63 of the 66 shots he faced against the Spartans over the weekend for an impressive .955 save percentage to go along with a 1.50 goals against average en route to being named the Big Ten’s Second Star of the Week (Feb. 22).
- Notre Dame ranks fourth in the country with 23 wins (23-9-0), trailing only Minnesota State (29-5-0), Quinnipiac (27-4-3) and Michigan (25-7-1).
- The Fighting Irish are 13-5-0 at home this season and 16-1-0 when scoring first.
- Freshman forward Hunter Strand has a career-long, three-game point streak (2-2-4) and he has six points over Notre Dame’s last six games (3-3-6).
- Max Ellis leads the Irish with a career-best 28 points on a team-high 16 goals and 12 assists.
- Since returning from break on Jan. 1, Spencer Stastney has four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 15 games and he has at least one point in 11 of the 15 games.
- Stastney has a career-high 24 points on six goals and 18 assists.
- Notre Dame is 6-2-0 in overtime this season, with the OT game-winning goals coming from Cam Burke (at Michigan Tech), Ryder Rolston (at Michigan), Max Ellis (at Michigan and at Penn State), Spencer Stastney (at Ohio State) and Landon Slaggert (vs. Minnesota).
- Notre Dame has made each of the last five NCAA Tournaments, the longest streak in program history, and eight of the last 11 NCAA Tournaments overall.
- The five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the second-longest active streak in the NCAA, trailing only Minnesota Duluth (6), with Minnesota State (3) and St Cloud State (3) tied for third.
NEXT – SENIOR NIGHT